Crack Olympiads with flying colours

Olympiads are the most prestigious scholastic exams for science and mathematics held every year to find gems from the younger lot and guide their way forward. Olympiads are held on regional, national and international levels to test students’ knowledge and potential to excel in it.

Students aiming to crack the Olympiad exams always look for ways to prepare and improve their scores. This article explains some effective ways to crack any Olympiad.

Study the syllabus: Before beginning the study for the actual exam, you must first study the syllabus in its entirety. Discuss with friends and teachers to ensure that you don’t miss any topic. This will give you an insight into what you are signing up for or what is expected of you.

Make a timetable: If you think you can study everything at once, you might end up studying nothing at all. So, make a fixed schedule and divide your time accordingly so that you have time for other important things as well. Identify your strong and weak areas and dedicate time accordingly. However, it is important that you just don’t skip the chapters/ subjects you are good at and practice them regularly in an organised and disciplined manner.

Thorough knowledge of concepts: Olympiads are fully based on the underlying concepts of the subject/ topic, but the questions are a bit tricky and that’s where students get stuck. Hence, you need to have your core concepts well in place if you intend to succeed in an Olympiad exam. Studying the concepts will make you confident and help you solve any problem.

Make notes: Notes come in handy while revising for the exam. Since the syllabus is the same as the school curriculum, you don’t have to do any extra work to make notes. Making notes will also multiply your focus and attention by many folds.

Stay focused: It is natural to get distracted in this media age, especially for children. That we can’t control but staying distracted is something you need to avoid. Olympiads demand focus. There are a lot of exercises that you can do to improve your focus and concentration like reducing multitasking, practising meditation, getting sound sleep, using the Pomodoro technique, etc.

Seek guidance: There are dedicated books for Olympiad exams that you can study from. There are online platforms too. However, nothing beats physical classroom teaching. So, try and seek guidance from the best teacher(s) available to you. Unfortunately, this expert guidance is not readily available in all schools, but some good institutes offer great coaching on such exams.

Develop your skills: Olympiad exams are more skill-based, so, skills like analytical reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving are extremely crucial to crack Olympiads. If possible, have group discussions among your fellow aspirants so that you gain a different perspective on things. This will add to your knowledge and improve your thinking, speaking, and listening skills, and in turn, boost your confidence.

Keep track of question types: If you take a close look at the questions asked in Olympiad exams, you will find that the multiple choice questions are to be solved based on your subject knowledge. All the students who study for the exam have an equal
tendency to clear it. Hence, if you keep your scorecard, you can easily figure out your accuracy level.

Pay attention to the scoring system: It is the most important step to crack any Olympiad exam. Studying the scoring system helps you understand the areas that
you need to focus on better.

Solve question papers: Now, no matter how much you have studied the concept, you will gain confidence only when you practise questions. So, try and solve as many question papers as possible. This will speed up your preparation. And after you have solved some question papers, give mock tests so that you get a feel of the real exam.

Stress and anxiety are the biggest enemies. So ensure that you don’t let them come in your way. In case they hit you, don’t turn a blind eye. Instead, seek help. Also, the day before the exam is critical. So, take proper rest. Don’t spend the whole night revising.

Olympiad exams aren’t very easy to crack because the bar of the competition has been raised to another level. So, you must look at it as a life experience and not as a race that you have to win. Just take a deep breath and go crack it.

(The author is an expert who works with a coaching centre)